“ 

Behind the air fryer,
may have a great opportunity for the food revolution.

 ”

(Carol he)

Source: foodily daily food (ID: foodily)

“The human pyrotechnic atmosphere is the most comforting to all people”. Whether it is mountain delicacies or ordinary meals, when the ingredients are processed by local cooking and enjoyed in the best tasting period, they will be endowed with the soul of “pyrotechnic atmosphere”. In the current fast-paced life, the appearance of prefabricated dishes makes consumers who are not good at cooking feel this “fireworks atmosphere”.

With the change of people’s eating habits and the impact of the epidemic, China’s Prefabricated vegetable market is rising rapidly. According to ncbd data, the sales of China’s Prefabricated dishes industry increased from 65.03 billion yuan in 2015 to 252.7 billion yuan in 2020, with an average annual growth of 31%. It is expected that the sales will exceed 830 billion yuan in 2025.

At a time when the market for prefabricated vegetables continues to be hot, foodaily has noticed that some catering brands have found a new way and started the idea of air frying pan. At the end of last year, the new consumer brand Lixiang launched air fryer and small crisp meat; In April this year, HEMA launched its own brand of special paper for air fryer, and in May, it launched new products such as skin shrimp and swimming crab suitable for air fryer. Recently, the quick-frozen food giant brand Sanquan also launched a series of new products of air frying pan, such as fried balls, small crispy meat and barbecue sausage.

What is the purpose of Sanquan’s entry into the market of prefabricated vegetables from air fryers? How can prefabricated food brands such as air fryer, Sanquan and so on achieve a new way of home cooking that is both convenient and delicious? Behind the kitchen appliances represented by air fryers, what are the potential opportunities for food reform that can provide new impetus for the development of prefabricated dishes?

The popular air fryer,

Maybe it’s the new traffic password for the prefabricated dishes?

In foodaily’s view, Sanquan’s launch of the air fryer series of prefabricated dishes not only captures the current “delicate and lazy” demand of consumers, but also captures the new heights of the prefabricated dish segment.

Everything can be fried, and the air fryer adds buffs to meet the “exquisite laziness”

On the one hand, the “single economy” and “one person eating” are rising. According to Qingshan capital’s 2021 annual consumption report, there are 92 million people living alone in China, equivalent to 1.1 Germany and 1.4 France. Among them, it only took 20 years for the proportion of “one person household” to grow from 6% to 25%. This part of the single population with a large base does not have the economic pressure to maintain their families for the time being. While meeting the most basic survival needs, they also have a high pursuit of healthy and convenient quality life.

On the other hand, the volatile epidemic has restricted consumers’ travel activities, but has promoted the development of the housing economy. When the frequency of use of kitchen scenes increases, consumers who are not satisfied with basic domestic dishes such as green vegetables and fried meat can only place their love for food on more diversified tools or ingredients, and air fryer is a very ideal choice.

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In recent years, with the maturity of industrial standardization and online retailing, more and more regional snacks have broken the space limit and entered the vision of consumers across the country with unique regional cultural labels. Under the influence of instant food, local delicacies such as snail powder and red oil noodle skin seize the opportunity to become popular online products across the country. Under this background, Sanquan launched the fried meatballs series to the national market with the fried meatballs with northern regional characteristics as its differentiated selling point.

Fried meatballs are a typical food snack with northern characteristics. In the three northern regions of China, as well as Sichuan and Chongqing in the southwest, Anhui in the East, Hubei and Jiangxi in the central and southern parts of China, there is a dietary custom of eating fried meatballs. In Henan and other central regions, there is even a saying that “if you don’t fry meatballs in the new year, it’s not called the new year”.

Mr. Liang Shiqiu mentioned in his article fried meatballs that “the meat is chopped loose and thin, fried outside and tender inside. It is crisp in the mouth, and does not need to chew. It does not spit out stones or pick thorns. It is delicious to eat it in pepper salt, one mouthful at a time.” Take the fried meatballs as an example. Lean pork is the main ingredient, supplemented by fat pork, eggs, scallions, ginger, cooking wine, vegetable oil, etc. a variety of flavors are integrated into the pork, which finally presents a round shape and a burnt yellow color. The jiaofried meatballs, a century old folk snack in Henan Province, are made by shredding the vermicelli after it has been watered, mixing it well with spices, flour and starch, and then frying it twice.

Picture source: Sanquan official account

Different from the characteristics of Southern hot-pot/" 22375 rel="nofollow" target="_self">hot pot meatballs, these northern fried meatballs have a burnt, fragrant and crisp taste, and are widely used. They can be fried, cold food, stewed vegetables, soup, etc. at the same time, the ingredients used for fried meatballs are all daily food for the general public. Therefore, fried meatballs have become a traditional flavor food full of childhood memories and regional human feelings in the recipes of northern people.

Although fried meatballs have a unique taste, a long history of diet, and flexible and diverse ways of eating, the processing level is still at the stage of small workshops. In addition to small factories in individual regions, they are mainly fried in family scenes and festivals and simple processing by small vendors. The production scale is small, the production process is scattered, and the product quality is also scattered. The degree of industrialization and standardization is far less than that of Southern hot-pot/" 22375 rel="nofollow" target="_self">hot pot meatballs.

Picture source: Sanquan official account

High public acceptance and scattered category markets are all opportunities for Sanquan to seize the market of prefabricated dishes by virtue of fried balls. How to create unique product characteristics and leave deep memories in the consumer minds of the public on the basis of uneven product quality is the key to the emergence of Sanquan brand new products.

Therefore, taking “entrance crispness” as the starting point of product design, Sanquan fried vegetarian meatballs cite mainstream flavors such as radish and leek, and are fried with starch wrapped in starch in a perfect mixture of dishes and egg liquid, which not only evokes the memory of home life, but also strengthens the characteristics of Jiaoxiang crispy products. Taking into account the dietary trend of “healthy without oil”, Sanquan also improved the process on the basis of preserving the charred, fragrant and crispy characteristics of fried balls, so that they can be easily cooked in an air fryer to achieve the effect of restoring characteristic flavor comparable to frying.

Foodaily

In order to solve this pain point, Sanquan roast sausage uses thin natural Pig casings to wrap the pork hind legs with fat and thin golden ratio, which not only maintains the chewy taste of the roast sausage, but also locks the juice, avoiding the dry, firewood and greasy eating experience. The product features of “quick juice without greasiness” combined with the concept of low oil and convenience of air frying pan make the sausages category jump out of the regular consumption scenario and realize the possibility of making sausages at home.

Picture source: Sanquan official account

In addition, in combination with the characteristics of oil-free cooking of air fryer, Sanquan has also improved the selection of high-quality raw materials and simpler frying process of fried baked pills, shrimp slides and spring rolls. Through technological innovation, it has brought new consumption scenarios for these categories and promoted the transformation of products from b-end to C-end.

Sanquan’s new products are not only aimed at air fryers,

But the great opportunity brought by the food revolution

From the convenient and fast cooking method of air frying pan, the types of prefabricated dishes can be extended from common and conventional dishes to more abundant categories such as regional specialties or snacks, while the foods once restricted by processing methods can also be expanded to more eating scenarios, and can be developed from outdoor scenarios such as convenience stores and hot-pot/" 22375 rel="nofollow" target="_self">hot pot shops to family kitchens.

It can be seen from this that Sanquan’s launch of new air fryer series products is not just to rub against the temporary popularity of “air fryer”, but to constantly insight into and adapt to the gradually changing demands of family diet and seek new growth points for prefabricated dishes to break through the dilemma of single type.

In addition to developing new products around the air fryer, in recent years, Sanquan has also followed the development trend of self heating technology and microwave cooking, and constantly innovated. For example, in March this year, Sanquan launched the microwave fried rice series of “integration of cooking and rice”, which uses high-temperature and microwave resistant packaging materials. The products do not need to be thawed or unpacked. They only need to put standing bags into the microwave oven for simple heating, and they can be eaten in the bags. After microwave fried rice, Sanquan also launched microwave pasta and other categories of food one after another, enriching the microwave food series.

Picture source: Sanquan official account

In fact, whether it is the innovation and popularization of kitchen appliances represented by air fryers and microwave ovens, or the change of cooking methods such as self heating, microwave and air frying, all reflect and affect the change of Chinese cooking habits and eating habits in the kitchen, expand more food categories for people in the kitchen scene, and provide greater room for innovation and upgrading of traditional quick-frozen food and emerging prefabricated dishes.

Similarly, the change of Chinese people’s eating habits has in turn promoted the evolution of the entire catering industry. The taste, healthy and fast food demand is not only applicable to the family kitchen scene, but also becomes the selection standard of outdoor dining. Catering enterprises continue to increase the introduction of industrialized and taste standardized prefabricated food products, and the new products of Sanquan series can also become a sharp weapon for b-end catering enterprises to improve the structure of dishes, improve the speed of serving and attract customers.

summary

Thirty years ago, Sanquan entered the “no man’s land” of China’s quick-frozen industry with frozen dumplings. At that time, people did not imagine that a small

Breaking through the air frying pan is actually a new idea to break the situation of prefabricated dishes?

百搭单品打破品类场景限制，探索家庭厨房的更多可能

除了从地域家常美食中汲取创新灵感，三全还洞察到了以小酥肉为代表的百搭单品的市场潜力。既能作为搭配主食的品质菜享用，充当解馋的零食，还能作为展示厨艺的社交话题分享。契合多种食用场景的小酥肉，不仅满足了都市消费者对速食生活的需求，也十分贴合空气炸锅的加工方式。

图片来源：三全公众号

为了进一步还原现制小酥肉的香酥体验，三全从产品的酥皮、肉质、外形、口感及口味等各个维度都精心打磨。三全精选肥瘦相间的优质猪后腿肉作为小酥肉的主料，肉质紧实富有弹性，自带油脂的特性更适合空气炸锅炸制。大多数肉制品经过热风“炸制”后会产生干柴口感，而三全调整配方、改良加工工艺，在小酥肉外层用新鲜鸡蛋及优质淀粉包裹，经过180℃高温油炸，在通过空气炸锅加工依旧能保持外酥里嫩富有嚼劲的口感。

除了常见家常菜系列，三全还推出烤肠等料理条件受限但单品市场容量巨大的产品。对烤肠来说，高温炙烤的加工条件、不耐吃的油腻体验决定了品类难以用常规的家庭烹饪工具加工以及不适合大量食用的局限性，只能在便利店或烧烤摊等场所低频次或小批量地应用。

为了解决这个痛点，三全烤肠用纤薄天然猪肠衣包裹肥瘦黄金配比的猪后腿肉，既保持了烤肠Q弹有嚼劲的口感，又能锁住汁水，避免干、柴及过于油腻的食用体验。“爆汁不油腻”的产品特点再结合以空气炸锅低油、便捷的概念，使烤肠品类得以跳出常规消费场景，实现了在家也能制作烤肠的可能性。

图片来源：三全公众号

此外，结合空气炸锅无油烹饪的特性，三全还对爆烤丸、虾滑及春卷产品在高品质的原料选择、更简便的炸制工艺等方面进行改良，通过技术创新为这些品类带来新的消费场景，促进产品从B端到C端的场景转化。

三全新品瞄准的岂止是空气炸锅，

而是饮食革命带来的巨大机会

从空气炸锅方便快捷的烹饪方式突围，预制菜的种类可以从普遍且常规的菜系延伸到地域特色美食或更偏向佐餐零嘴等更丰富的品类，而曾经因加工方式受限的食品也能拓展到更多的食用场景，能从便利店、火锅店等户外场景向家庭厨房发展。

由此可见，三全推出空气炸锅系列新品，并不只是单纯在蹭“空气炸锅”的一时热度，而是在不断洞察、适配逐渐变化的家庭饮食诉求，为预制菜突破种类单一的困境寻求新的增长点。

除了围绕空气炸锅开发新品，近年来，三全也顺应自热技术、微波烹饪等发展趋势，不断推陈出新。比如今年三月，三全推出“菜饭一体”的微波炒饭系列，选用耐高温可微波的包装材质，产品无需解冻、拆袋，只需要把站立式的袋子放进微波炉中简单加热，即可在袋内完成食用。在微波炒饭之后，三全还陆续推出微波意面等其他品类的食品，丰富微波食品系列。

图片来源：三全公众号

其实无论是以空气炸锅、微波炉为代表的厨房家电创新与普及，还是自热、微波、空气炸等烹饪方式的改变，都反映和影响了中国人厨房烹饪习惯、饮食习惯的转变，为人们在厨房场景拓展更多的食品品类，为传统速冻食品和新兴的预制菜都提供了更大的创新与升级空间。

同样，国人饮食习惯的改变也反过来推动整个餐饮行业的进化。口味、健康、快捷的饮食需求不仅适用于家庭厨房场景，也成为室外餐饮的选择标准。餐饮企业不断加大引入工业化、口味标准化的预制菜产品，而三全的系列新品也可以成为B端餐企改善菜品结构、提高出餐速度、吸引顾客的利器。

总结

三十年前，三全凭借冷冻汤圆，闯入了中国速冻产业的“无人区”。那时人们并未想象，一颗小小的速冻汤圆也能成就百亿规模的巨大市场。如今三全在坚守主业阵地的同时，顺应市场变化并积极推陈出新，源源不断地迸发品牌活力。

从空气炸锅切入赛道从而抢占预制菜细分市场的高地，三全此次推新不仅透露出预制菜市场多元发展的机遇，也彰显了以三全食品为代表的速冻食品在饮食方式变化下更贴近大众需求的强烈决心。

以空气炸锅突围的预制菜能否开启增长新曲线，作为速冻食品创新先锋的三全又能否在微波、空气炸锅预制菜中延续以往汤圆的辉煌，让我们拭目以待！

参考资料：

[1]《预制菜：如日方升，预制新趋势》

[2]《记录｜炸肉丸子：味蕾上的山东文化传承》

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